Vettel!

Even though I’ve not written much about Formula 1 this year, it’s been an interesting season. Until a couple of races ago, four drivers could potentially win the championship. Right now the fight is between Ferrari’s Felipe Massa and McLaren-Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton. It’s also rather tight in the fight for the third place, with only one point between one of my favorite drivers, Robert Kubica, and Kimi Räikkönen, driving for BMW Sauber and Ferrari respectively.

Not that anything is decided yet, things can change quickly in Formula 1 as we saw last year. This weekend the teams are in Italy for the 2008 Italy Grand Prix and the Monza track, the fastest circuit of the season with a top speed of up to 372 km/h (231 mph)*. Today’s qualifying was an exciting one with a lot of rain and weather that changed faster than the teams could keep up with.

Two times Formula 1 champion Fernando Alonso didn’t even manage to get to Q2, while all the top drivers except Massa failed to qualify for Q1. This opened the grid for some of the smaller teams and in the end young German Sebastian Vettel found himself in pole position. The Ferrari and McLaren-Mercedes’ pit crews look happy whenever one of their drivers manage to secure the pole, but they are used to it. The scenes in the Toro Rosse pit showed real emotions when they understood what Vettel has managed. To get to Q1 is not something that happens every day for a small team like Toro Rosso and I don’t think they’ve ever had a driver in pole position.

If I were a woman, I probably would have cried a bit.

How long Vettel will manage to stay in P1 during tomorrows race is up for discussion. He’s got Heikki Kovalainen on the grid next to him and Kovalainen’s McLaren-Mercedes would normally beat the STR-Ferrari. But we’ll see. One thing is for sure: With champion wanna-be Hamilton as far back in the grid as P15, Räikkönen on P14, Robert Kubica on P11 and Massa on P6 we will see some seriously entertaining driving tomorrow.

*That was with the old V10 engines, the top speed is lower now, I’m not sure of the exact figure.

Robert.

It’s been an exciting racing weekend: The Formula 1 teams had flown across the pond to Canada for the annual Grand Prix Du Canada in Montreal. As so many times before, Lewis Hamilton secured pole position in Saturday’s qualifying session, while Rober Kubica surprised everyone by starting from the second position in the grid after well below average driving through the entire session - except for when it really mattered.

After a clean start, the race progressed without any noticeable incidents until Andrian Sutil span out and parked his Force India where it was impossible for the circuit crew to get to it without the help of the safety car. As soon as the pit opened, all the cars in the top positions decided to enter. In itself a very interesting thing, since five cars in the pit at the same time is quite a lot on the Canadian track.

Both Raikkonen and Kubica overtook Hamilton during the pit stop and left their respsective pits after a quick tyre change and refueling. Both cars had to stop at the pit exit because of a red light. Unfortunately, Hamilton didn’t see the neither the red light nor the two cars in front of him and slammed into the back of Raikonnen’s Ferrari, the end result being that they both had to retire from the race.

Kubica was not affected by this, pulled away from the pits as soon as the green light was turned on and went on to win the race, his first every Formula 1 victory.

Tonight we’re all Polish.

Finnish Finish.

The 2007 Formula 1 season is now officially over and in the end it was Kimi Raikkonen who brought home the championship title after some Brazilian drama. Hamilton managed to drive off the track in one of the first turns, and even if he made it back on to the track he suffered gear box problems shortly after and fell back to 18th place. He crawled back up in the field, but didn’t make it far enough to deny Raikkonen the title.

Alonso didn’t manage to keep up with the Ferraris and finished third in the race and the championship. In spite of that, he actually smiled from the podium, the most likely cause for that being that Hamilton wasn’t crowned champion.

So congratulations to all the Ferrari fan boys for both the driver and manufacture championship titles this year. And that’s it, no more Formula 1 ramblings on this site until the 2008 season starts.

Gordon.

If you don’t have any plans for the weekend, I’ve got two great ideas for you.

The last race of the 2007 Formula 1 season is being held on the Interlagos circuit in Sao Paulo, Brazil, this weekend. It’s very tight in the driver standings, with three drivers having a theoretical chance of winning the championship.

I’m hoping for Alonso, but it seem I’m pretty much the only one doing that except for most of the Spaniards. Even those who hate Alonso should root for him because he once said that that he would quit Formula 1 if he won the championship three times. Let him win this year and you’re rid of the guy. I guess none of us actually believe that he will quit if he wins, though. Continue reading "Gordon."

Some Other Power.

Yesterday night the six of us gathered in the darkest of the warehouses at the docks. We all knew the secret knock and the even more secret handshake. None of us knew each other, but we were all there for the same reason. After having put on our ceremonial robes, drawn the ancient hieroglyphs on the warehouse floor and clubbed the baby seal to death, we sat down, joined hands and started chanting.

“Retire, retire, retire, retire…”

Long forgotten demons awoke from their deep sleep and started gathering outside Shanghai, China. Continue reading "Some Other Power."